Getting Started with Email Automation

Automation emails are processed in the order they are received. We recommend automation events be at least 10 seconds apart to leave room for delays and ensure status changes are made in the intended order.

Statuspage users have the ability to automate the status of their components by sending us emails.

You can configure your internal systems or set up your third-party monitoring systems to send us these emails when you detect that some part of your site is down.

Step 1: Enable The Add-on

If you haven't already done so, you'll need to activate the add-on in the add-on store (it's free).

Step 2: Get The Component-Specific Email Address

When a component is created, we generate a specific, secure email address that is designated just for that component.

You can find this email address by going to the Automation page for the component you are wanting to automate.

Step 3: Automating The Component Via Email

Before we get started, it's important to note that automation emails will be ignored when there are live incidents or scheduled maintenances open on the page. If you're using Component Subscriptions, and an incident is open and tied to a certain component, we will ignore any email automation updates for that specific component while the incident is open.

Our thought process here is that we want you to have full control over what goes onto your status page during those times, and an open incident indicates that you are aware of and managing the problem.

The email automation parser looks at the subject line of emails to determine what should be done.

If the email's subject line contains the word "DOWN", we will set the component to Major Outage.

If the email's subject line contains the word "UP", we will set the component to Operational.

Setting a component to "Degraded Performance" or "Partial Outage".

You can set a component to Degraded Performance or Partial Outage by appending these statuses to the email address of the component. Example...

However - the "+partial_outage" and "+degraded_performance" being added to the email address overrides the "UP" command in subject lines. In other words, while these email addresses can put components "DOWN" into those states, they cannot go "UP" to Operational. Going to Operational requires the unaltered automation email be used.

Using Third-Party Services

The most common way to automate components via email is in conjunction with your third-party monitoring service.

Below are the officially supported third-party monitoring systems with a link to their specific documentation:

Using "Unsupported" Third-Party Services

Remember, this is driven off of emails that have the words "DOWN" or "UP" in their subject line. Any third-party monitoring system that can be set up to include these words in their email alerts will work.

If you use a monitoring system that does not include these words in their alert email subject lines or can't be configured to do so, send us a feature request at hi@statuspage.io.